Fútbol is life

The GIST: Everything is bigger in Texas…even pickleball. This weekend, Dallas hosted the CIBC Texas Open, which included both amateurs and Professional Pickleball Association Tour pro players. Last Tuesday, The GIST spoke with Twisted Pickle — a Dallas-based pickleball marketing agency co-owned by Ashlee Erickson Blakley and Suzanne Greever — about the sport’s explosive growth.

The growth: As the fastest-growing U.S. sport, the number of American pickleball players has surged to 8.9M and interest has jumped 550% over the past five years. The number of major tourneys has grown to 47 events across three of the top pro tours, and the $152.8M pickleball paddle market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.7% through 2028.

• Considering its 30M population and $2.4T economy, it’s no surprise Texas is one of the strongest drivers of the sport’s growth by state, and has the third-highest number of pickleball courts after California and Florida.

The agency: Blakely and Greever noticed a niche in the market for helping pickleball companies develop their brands, so Twisted Pickle helps everyone from franchise pickleball facilities to individual players. And as far as they know, the company is also the only women-owned pickleball marketing firm. In no (wo)man’s land.

The gender gap: Although there are more men (60.5%) than women (39.5%) who play the sport, the game is growing at a higher rate among women than men. Similarly to golf, pickleball has a distinct opportunity to appeal to women players and fans, which is where Twisted Pickle comes in.

• Blakely and Greever said the pickleball market focuses on marketing male pickleball players as athletes, while women athletes have often been pigeonholed into the influencer-lifestyle space. “It defaults a lot to women having cute clothing lines and then men are at more corporate junctures where they’re making the paddles that are selling,” Blakely said.

• This is why they’ve been adamant about marketing women players for their athletic prowess and business acumen, like Sarah Williams. “The more women that are promoted in this scene in a business light, the more women as players are going to be focused on as their own business entities,” she continued.

Zooming out: Pickleball is seeing significant growth, but there’s also a sizable income gap between men and women due to sponsorship. The game’s proven its ROI in Texas and beyond, but it takes agencies like Twisted Pickle to push the game forward by recognizing a proven fact: women athletes are often more marketable than men. A slam dink.

The GIST: With the popularity of sports like soccer and baseball throughout Latin America, men’s sports leagues like La Liga and MLB are investing heavily in marketing toward Latinx fans in the U.S. It’s also a strategy the NWSL and franchises with sizable Latinx communities like L.A.’s Angel City FC have been in on since the get-go. Vamos.

Men’s sports: Top Spanish men’s soccer flight La Liga partnered with McDonald’s last Wednesday to empower Latinx communities through exposure to the beautiful game, offering free, week-long youth soccer camps across the U.S. Plus, 12 lucky players will even win a trip to Spain to train and watch a La Liga game.

• And many MLB stars hail from Latin America: 24.2% percent of its 949 players were born in Latin America, with nearly half coming from the Dominican Republic. To celebrate the impact Latinx players have on baseball, MLB debuted a new fan-centric campaign last week featuring top stars speaking Spanish and English.

NWSL efforts: Last summer, the NWSL launched its first-ever Spanish-language broadcast with Central American broadcaster Tigo. This summer, the women’s soccer league will kick off its Summer Cup with Liga MX Femenil teams, which will broadcast in English on CBS and in Spanish on Univision’s TUDN and NWSL+.

• On a club level, Angel City FC is one team that has leaned into its Latinx fanbase. Nearly half of Angelenos speak Spanish at home, and its 1.8M Hispanic/Latinx residents are the largest ethnic demographic in the city.

• Angel City nods to its multicultural background throughout its team branding — the club’s motto is “volemos” and its iconic pink is dubbed “sol rosa.” Angel City’s dedicated fan group is also called La Fortaleza and helps fill up its home stadium with 19K fans on average.

Zooming out: The Latinx community comprises about 20% of the U.S. population and is responsible for $3.2T in GDP, yet they’ve been a woefully neglected marketing demographic. The sports world is starting to recognize the opportunity here, but soccer’s been engaged long before other leagues caught on. Time to play catch up.

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